ccoyle

Welcome aboard, Clive!

Should you ever find yourself in the 4th dimension, please have a look around for the various parts I have unwillingly contributed to the landscape over the years.

But I bet you make them in your head, right?

Totally understandable. A poorly designed kit can suck the modeling mojo right out of a person. I read through your account of the troubles with this kit. The box art suggests that this is one of the kits updated by Dusek after they purchased Mamoli. The work may have been done hastily to keep the kit on the market -- just guessing. In any case, it looks like the update was not entirely successful. Good luck on your other projects!

The upper wing is now mounted. It wasn't as troublesome as I feared it might be to get all eight struts in place. The model is now sufficiently far enough along to execute recon missions over the dog while making airplane noises. What? Are you telling me you don't make airplane noises?

Francois, The member who built this model passed away in 2019. Please use English for any future posts. Regards, Chris

Yes, actually! BTW, you probably already know this, but Tom Grigat built that very kit in one of his Modeling in Motion videos.

Welcome aboard!

Quite possibly the worst rigging diagram I have ever had to work with. Note that one end or the other end, sometimes both ends, of each line is not shown. And this is pretty much the only rigging diagram in the kit. In photos, most of the bracing wires appear to be doubled. In some instances it looks like the pairs were wrapped in some kind of material. The upshot is that the cables look thicker. I will duplicate this effect by using wire for the rigging instead of EZ-Line. That means the technique will be a little different. Here's the forest of struts mounted to the lower wing.

Welcome aboard, Tony!

I got the cabane struts and their bracing done, so of course I had to give the top wing a trial fit.

Wing progress.

Hi, Robert. First, allow me to offer my condolences on the loss of your father. It's a commendable desire to have his model completed in his memory. It's a bit daunting that the model requires essentially all of its rigging work done, as that is no easy task. Another option to consider is to display your father's model as a hull model, which as the name suggests is simply the hull of a vessel sans masts and rigging. Finishing your father's model in that fashion would entail considerably less work. Hull models often include stump masts, essentially just the lower portion of each mast. Your father made the masts already, so that would be a straightforward fix. I'll add some links to hull models in the gallery so you can see what I've described. https://modelshipworld.com/gallery/album/2836-enterprize-1774/ https://modelshipworld.com/gallery/album/2824-hms-winchelsea-finished-1764-by-baribeaujm/ https://modelshipworld.com/gallery/album/2736-hms-fly-1776-by-ccoyle/

Good luck with your project, Chuck!

Welcome aboard, Noggy!

https://thenrg.org/resources/Documents/articles/APrimerOnPlanking.pdf

Just like on a real ship, you need to get your masts steadied first. This means your stays (forestays and backstays) and shrouds should be done first. In any case, you can't do the ratlines until the shrouds are set up.

So, last night I got the skins edge-colored and started work on beefing up the internal frames, starting on the center section. There are multiple issues here. First, the instructions and diagrams provide virtually no guidance on where the innermost ribs are supposed to go. Second, the wing is supposed to have a slight dihedral, as suggested by the shape of the spars, but the diagrams do not include a three view (which is a criminal oversight, IMO), and the frames do not include any kind of obvious parts for making sure the proper dihedral gets locked in. That means there is some guesswork involved here. I added the innermost pair of ribs at the joints between the left and right spars, glued the two wing halves together, liberally saturated the area with thin CA, and then left the whole thing to cure overnight while sitting in a crude jig. Will that sufficiently stabilize the center section? That remains to be seen. In hindsight, I now suspect that the 'inner' ribs are supposed to be located at the outboard ends of the center section, forming a central 'slice' of wing that would butt join the outer wing panels by inserting the thinner bits of spar into slots in the center-section ribs (it would've been super nice if, ya know, this had been shown somewhere like maybe, I dunno -- IN THE DIAGRAMS??). This is just so unlike any construction method I have previously used that it didn't register in my brain -- at all. One upshot of this is that the beefy pseudo-rib I have created in the middle of the wing has too much material in it -- the center skin will not fit properly, so material will have to be removed from the internal framing. Sigh. 😑

The problem is, adding a sub-forum for every modeling niche creates clutter on the homepage, and in the past we have had to prune categories because members complained that there were too many! Striking the happy balance between too many and not enough is always difficult. But -- every SIB build log is tagged with the word 'BOTTLE', so they can easily be found.

Yep, they are not cheap. For many it comes down to a choice of either building models or buying cases. 😬

I know I said that this project would go on hold once the Speeljacht had arrived, but this one is in such an advanced state that it would be a shame not to finish it off. So, I have pretty much decided to forge ahead with it. Moving along to the upper wing, I had just enough time last night to throw together the internal framing and cut out the wing skins. I will have more to say on the underwhelming internal structure in my next post.

A great choice of subject!

I haven't checked for blocks, but I have plenty left over from my Wuetender Hund build. I suspect only a handful are needed. As for pins, I suspect the subject predates their widespread use.

Lower wings mated to fuselage. This crate is taking up some real estate!

Well, two weeks after placing the order, everything arrived safe and sound. You can add Seahorse to the list of conscientious shippers -- all was securely packed. First glimpse inside. I believe Tomek has described his mast sets as something like "just sticks," but they are reasonably priced, and I like the fact that I don't have to source dowels of the right diameter and cut them to length. They will need to be shaped, obviously. Pre-printed sails. These include suggestions for dying, reinforcing, and adding boltropes. The kit itself. Believe it or not, my knife slipped while slicing open the protective plastic sleeve. Fortunately, I only damaged the back cover. Whew!!! Some parts . . . . . . and diagrams. And, of course, laser-cut frames. Looking forward to starting soon